Coming off the worst month of her political career, Heidi Heitkamp comes into this debate in desperate need of an outright win.

At this final debate, Heitkamp needs to not only answer for her grave errors in judgement, but also her anti-North Dakota positions, such as:

Why did she say she would oppose late-term abortion, but then vote to support it?

Why did she fail to crack down on sanctuary cities and dismiss the issue as a scare tactic?

Why has she voted for higher premiums and fewer health care choices?

Why does she play politics with the ag community, and continue to prolong trade disputes by undermining the President?

Did your campaign violate FEC regulations while trying to bury an apology to the sexual assault victims outed by your campaign?

After wrongly outing abuse survivors in an attempt to score political points, then doing the same to a WWII veteran, how can North Dakota trust her judgement?

“Heidi Heitkamp will again use this debate to try to distract voters from her out-of-touch, liberal voting record,” said North Dakota Republican Party Communications Director Jake Wilkins. “Heidi needs to be held accountable for consistently opposing what’s best for North Dakotans while exploiting them for her own political gain.”

A gaffe prone politician who’s made grave errors in judgement will be campaigning for a heated North Dakota Senate race this November, and it won’t just be Heidi Heitkamp.

Heitkamp has invited *former* Vice President Joe Biden, one of the few politicians as unpopular here as she is, to campaign with her this November.

REMINDER: These two share a lot in common. With a shared propensity for gaffes and an underwhelming performance on the campaign trail, Biden was a thorn in the side of the 2012 Democrat ticket the same way Heidi has been for the National Democrats in 2018. A few Biden highlights:

The North Dakota Republican Party released a new ad today highlighting Heidi Heitkamp’s out-of-tune voting record.

“Heidi Heitkamp’s liberal record just doesn’t sound right to North Dakotans,” said North Dakota Republican Party Communications Director Jake Wilkins. “Voters are ready to reject Heitkamp for consistently opposing their interests on the issues that matter most: life, taxes, and the Supreme Court.”

On the brink of defeat, Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign isn’t holding back from attacking anyone they want, including a WWII veteran who requested that Heitkamp stop using his image without his consent.

Facing backlash, Heitkamp’s Communications Director called that story “wrong and gutter politics at its worst.”

LET’S BE CLEAR: In this campaign, “gutter politics at its worst” is only embodied by Heidi Heitkamp, whose campaign has exploited veterans, sexual assault survivors, and whoever else she can for political gain.

Yesterday I wrote a post about Lynn Aas, a WWII veteran who received the Legion of Honor award from France last year, who objected to Senator Heidi Heitkamp bragging about her attendance at that event on her Facebook page.

“Lynn is not happy that Heidi did this. We have posted a comment requesting that it be taken down,” David Aas, Lynn’s son, told me in an email. “Lynn wants to make it clear that no one from the Heitkamp campaign contacted him to ask for permission for this, and he does not want this to be viewed as an endorsement of her campaign.”

I reached out to Heitkamp’s staff for comment yesterday, but as is typical for them they didn’t respond to me. They did respond to Fox News, however, when the news network picked up my story. Their statement characterized Aas’ objection to the use of his image by the Senator as “gutter politics.”

“This story is wrong and is gutter politics at its worst. A link to a local news article was posted on Sen. Heitkamp’s Senate Facebook page about a ceremony she participated in last year for a WWII veteran to highlight a recognition he earned. An individual photo was not posted. The way social media works is that if you post a link to an article, the photo in the article also shows up in the post. Let’s talk about facts rather than distortions or political games. We took the post of the article down after the veteran’s son asked us to via Facebook,” said Abbie McDonough, Heitkamp’s U.S. Senate communications director.

“In fact, at the event, Mr. Aas joked with Sen. Heitkamp that he liked her, but isn’t going to vote for her. They both shared a laugh, and she retold the story at the event. In North Dakota, you can still recognize the service of an honorable man from a different political party without playing politics. Sen. Heitkamp will continue to work to make sure all veterans have the support, resources, and recognition they deserve and earned – despite others playing politics with our nation’s veterans,” she added.

I’m gobsmacked that Senator Heitkamp’s staff would attack Mr. Aas like this. The objection to the use of his image, and his story, in Heitkamp’s post came from him. I didn’t solicit it. I wasn’t even aware of his objection until his family alerted me to it.

And it wasn’t just that Heitkamp (or, more accurately, her staff) posted a link to a local news story which auto-populated with Aas’ image. It’s that they used Aas’ story, and his name, as well as his image in the heat of a campaign and at a moment when Heitkamp has been touring the state touting her record on veterans’ issues.

Aas didn’t want to be a part of that messaging. He should get to say that without being attacked by Heitkamp’s staff.

There’s a pro-abortion, pro-Obamacare, anti-gun, red-state Democrat who lost touch with her state campaigning in North Dakota today, and it’s not just Heidi Heitkamp.

Mary Landrieu is on the trail with Heitkamp in Fargo today, joining her long list of irrelevant surrogates whose views are out-of-touch with North Dakota:

“Heidi Heitkamp can’t stop finding ways to remind voters of her out-of-touch, liberal record,” said North Dakota Republican Party Communications Director Jake Wilkins. “Hopefully the former Senator can tell Heidi how to handle losing a competitive Senate race to a popular House member.”

Heidi Heitkamp is out with a new ad attacking Kevin Cramer on pre-existing conditions, something her campaign called “a winning issue for us.”

LET’S BE CLEAR: Unlike Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign, Kevin Cramer doesn’t care about whether something is “a winning issue” politically. He cares about what will actually help the people of North Dakota, and that is not Obamacare.

Obamacare has created higher premiums and fewer choices for North Dakotans while shifting the burden of cost onto small businesses and farmers. While both candidates support protecting pre-existing conditions, only Heidi Heitkamp supports a law that hurts her state.

“This is the same ineffective line of attack Heitkamp has been launching for months. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now,” said North Dakota Republican Party Communications Director Jake Wilkins. “Lying about Cramer’s health care plan will work about as well as outing victims of sexual assault without their consent.”

As Heidi Heitkamp continues campaigning with a former Obama official who let our military down, North Dakota veterans were praising Kevin Cramer for his work on veterans issues while highlighting their support for him.

U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, who currently occupies the same Senate seat held by Hagel, also criticized Heitkamp and Hagel for their shared support of the Iran Nuclear Deal.

U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, Nebraska:

“Kevin Cramer won’t be a ‘lead from behind’ kind of senator who supports foreign policy disasters like the Iran Deal. The world is a dangerous place and Americans have to defend ourselves from traditional threats of terrorism and nuclear proliferation and on new battlefields in cyberspace. North Dakota’s choice is clear: strong leadership or more Obama-era foreign policy weakness.”

Medal of Honor Recipient Clint Romesha:

“One of the reasons Congressman Cramer has been just phenomenal is him advocating for veterans, veterans rights, and all the help along the way he’s provided for me, for some of the things I hold near and dear to my heart. … Cramer has always struck me as, unlike a lot of politicians that tell you a lot of things but don’t do a lot of things, he backs up what he says with actions that he does.” Click here to listen.

Ret. General Mike Haugen:

“Both Kevin and Heidi claim they support our military, but Kevin has proved it a lot with trips that he’s taken, with votes that he’s made and votes that he’s cast for increased military spending, increased salary for military members. Heidi will say, that but here’s my issue: she always votes with the Democrats, and votes like New York, and does not always side with the broad military perspective, but with more social programs vs the military.” Click here to listen.

Ret. National Guard Specialist Dick Walstad:

“Absolutely Kevin Cramer [gets my vote]. … I’m just delighted to see the turnaround in defense spending and increase in the budget and taking care of all these marvelous young people that are serving in the military, and providing them with a living and a career that can support a family.” Click here to listen.

Heidi Heitkamp has a well-deserved deficit in the polls after she outed victims of sexual assault without their consent, continued to campaign rather than apologize, then lied about it.

Now to save what for weeks has been the most vulnerable Senate campaign in the country, Heitkamp is continuing her apparent requirement that all surrogates be irrelevant Trump-bashing politicians, bringing former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to North Dakota:

LET’S BE CLEAR— Chuck Hagel has an anti-Israel, pro-Iran record, and was Defense Secretary as ISIS surged to power in the Middle East. Pro-Israel groups have been campaigning against Heitkamp this cycle, and today she is reminding them why.

“While Kevin Cramer gains support from North Dakota veterans, Heidi Heitkamp is campaigning with a man who let them down,” said North Dakota Republican Party Communications Director Jake Wilkins. “Hagel was dismissed from from this last position for doing a poor job, an experience he and Heitkamp will have in common after this November.”

Facing fierce backlash for outing victims of sexual assault without their consent, Heidi Heitkamp was asked by Anchor Chris Berg why she did not suspend her campaign to figure out exactly what happened and to prioritize personally apologizing to the victims of her actions.

LET’S BE CLEAR— Heidi Heitkamp absolutely did not suspend her campaign, not on the day reports surfaced or any day following.

Heitkamp was filmed by Showtime’s The Circus campaigning the day it was reported her campaign outed these victims without their consent:

The following day, her campaign launched a tone deaf attack ad focusing on women’s issues and issued press releases criticizing her opponent:

Two days later, as one of the victims of Heitkamp’s actions said she had not heard from the Senator, Heitkamp continued her attacks against Kevin Cramer and participated in their first debate:

“Nearly one week after Heidi Heitkamp outed victims of sexual assault without their consent, she is still not being truthful,” said North Dakota Republican Party Communications Director Jake Wilkins. “Many victims said this horrible tragedy ruined their lives, yet Heidi Heitkamp is dead set on continuing to lie to them and to the people of North Dakota.”